Identification of elementary school students’ difficulties in mathematical problem-solving

Abstract

One of the goals of learning mathematics is that students can solve mathematical problems in particular that can then solve problems in everyday life. In the process of solving problems, the skills that students must also possess are the ability to understand the problem, the ability to compose mathematical models of a problem and interpret the solution. In practice, however, students will encounter difficulties in resolving unavoidable problems. The purpose of this study is: 1) to explain the difficulties of students in resolving problem-solving problems; 2) to know the cause of students’ difficulties in resolving problem-solving. The research studies used are qualitative descriptive. The participants of this study are 27 students of class III B in one of the elementary schools in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta. Method of collecting data through problems solving test. Data analysis techniques through the statistical description and content analysis. The results of this study show that 1) students are not used to face problem-solving problems, so that the results of solving problems are very low, (2) students have difficulty in finding keywords from problems in questions, because they don’t know the information or keyword of the problem and tend to guess the solution without going through the completion process (3) Students have difficulty to model the problem into mathematical form (4) Students have difficulty deciding how to resolution of the problem, and 5) students have difficulty in counting operations, so that students interpret conclusions that are not appropriate to the problem. Therefore, this results of the research will lead to inform the teachers, in order to improve students’ mathematical problem solving skills.